


Inevitable

by constantlearner



Category: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Genre: Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:03:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1822732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constantlearner/pseuds/constantlearner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One hot day in the Lake District.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitable

 

 

It was inevitable that Nancy would bring a rope with her, that still August Day when even John and Dick had to admit there was not enough wind for sailing and they visited Greenland and its crags. It was inevitable that Roger and Dick would get bored first with lazing in the heather after lunch. It was inevitable that they would go and look for buzzards’ nests. It was inevitable that Dot would go after them to see that Dick came to no harm and that Titty would accompany her. It was inevitable, given the heat, that both the Amazons would take their red knitted hats off. Susan had taken her sunhat off, found herself just as hot without it and put it back on.

 It was inevitable that Roger would get himself in a tangle with the rope, twenty or so feet up the rock face. Inevitably, Dorothea had raced back for help just when John had wandered off to a clump of trees not too far away. Inevitably, Nancy had been the one to climb up and free Roger and the rope, so he could make his way back to the ground, guided by instructions from Peggy. It was not inevitable, but sheer bad luck that Nancy’s hair snagged in one of the metal spikes left by rock-climbers while she was freeing Roger.

“Someone had better come and hack it off.” she had said, cheerfully, and waited for John to climb up with the penknife already open held beneath his teeth. He cut off rather more than he need to, but managed to close the knife, pressing the back of the blade against the rock and slip it into his shirt pocket along with some at least of the hair he had cut off.  It was inevitable that it should be Susan who had worried most.

Inevitably John had taken both hair and knife from his pocket when he had got undressed that night. So much that day had been inevitable that he never asked himself why the lock of hair ended up in the old biscuit tin with his most prized possessions.


End file.
